Personality

Nagisa is usually rather childish, serving as the plucky and cheerful comic relief of the group, though she's shown to be more perceptive than she seems. She tends to speaks rather eloquently (e.g. "Let me explain that from my own lips", "We were once bringers of hope, who despaired and spread our curses").

As Bebe, she is even more childish, often jumping around, and panicking at the thought of turning into cheese.

From an interview with the character designer, Ume Aoki, regarding Nagisa: "At the beginning I was imagining her as the type to do things at her own pace, a little selfish, but once her speech patterns were determined I started to feel like all of that was part of her innocence and youth, and was able to draw her naturally."[1]

Story

Backstory

Currently unknown. A section in Puella Magi Production Note suggests she may have a mother who died from an illness, but the section is technically for an unused prototype witch.

Nagisa in Madoka Magica

Nagisa in Rebellion

Prior to the beginning of Rebellion, Madoka, Sayaka and Nagisa enter Homura's witch barrier from the Law of Cycles. In order to stop Kyubey's plan to observe and control the Law of Cycles, Madoka entrusted her memories and powers to both Nagisa and Sayaka so they could reawaken her to save Homura at the right time. Nagisa later explains that she took the mission because she wanted to eat cheese again.

Once she enters Homura's barrier, Nagisa disguises herself as her witch form (which Kyubey would not recognize). The other characters call her Bebe. While disguised, she stays at Mami's house and helps the magical girls fight Nightmares. The memory altering effects of the barrier causes Mami to believe that Bebe is her oldest friend. Although her own memories are unaffected, Nagisa seems to reciprocate Mami's friendship.

Eventually Homura begins to discover the truth of the false world and suspects Nagisa/Bebe as the culprit due to her appearance as Charlotte. Homura tries to interrogate Bebe, but is stopped by Mami. Bebe escapes as Mami and Homura fight each other. When the battle concludes, Sayaka helps Homura escape from Mami, and Nagisa returns to her human form. She apologizes to Mami for deceiving her and explains the truth to Mami.

Nagisa reappears as Bebe once Homura transforms into Homulilly. She transforms back into her human form and uses her weapon, an explosive bubble-blowing trumpet, to create cracks in Homulilly's barrier. Ultimately, the magical girls hold off Homulilly and her familiars long enough to break through the barrier, revealing the isolation field that Homura's soul gem was trapped in. Madoka calls out to Homura's remaining humanity and together they destroy the isolation field from within, foiling the Incubators' plot.

Once the barrier disappears, Ultimate Madoka descends from the sky along with a carriage containing both Sayaka and Nagisa. Madoka intends to take Homura into the Law of Cycles. However, Homura has been changed by her experiences in her barrier and thus grabs Madoka before she can take her soul gem. Homura then separates Madoka from the Law of Cycles and uses her new powers to rewrite reality. Nagisa is shown to be engulfed by the colors spilling out of Homura's soul gem and spreading to cover the universe.

In Homura's new reality, Nagisa is unable to return to the Law of Cycles. She is seen happily running about in her civilian outfit, implying that Homura has erased her memories of being a magical girl. It is also suggested Homura has suppressed her magical girl and witch powers, effectively turning Nagisa back into an ordinary human. Eventually Nagisa meets up with a group of kids her own age and leaves with them. It is implied that they are all going to school together.

At the end of the movie Mami saves Nagisa from falling packages of cheese, suggesting that they will become friends again in the new reality.

Observations

Nagisa claims she came back as a secretary of Ultimate Madoka to eat cheese again. How true this is is currently unknown.

She is said to have a child-like appearance.

She is said to be very close to Mami.

Her weapon is a trumpet styled like Charlotte, that can shoot bubbles powerful enough to put cracks in a witch's barrier.

Her associated colour is possibly either white, brown or orange. Fan artists usually go with orange.

Unlike the other magical girls in Madoka Magica, Nagisa's hair, eyes and soul gem are not all the same colour.

She seems to hate Kyubey, as she is seen snarling at him several times as Bebe.

She can channel or change her form to and from Bebe (and by extension Charlotte's second form). She can also summon Charlotte's and other witches' familiars. The Pyotrs she summons don't do anything, but a Polina is seen helping Mami with her trapezes. This is because of special powers granted to her as a secretary of Ultimate Madoka, as well as being a part of the Law of Cycles.

Her magical girl design is near-identical to an initially-proposed beta outfit for Yuma.

Speculation

The theories below have been proven right.At least one element from the franchise is rendering them valid.

The most prominent speculation is that Nagisa is the magical girl form of Charlotte. It has been pointed out that Nagisa's bangs resemble part of Charlotte's forehead in doll form, and her pigtails resemble Charlotte's "ears" in both forms. Nagisa also has a similar color scheme to Charlotte, as she has white hair and wears clothing that is colored brown, red, and pink with polka dots. Finally, Nagisa has unusually colored eyes that are yellow in the center and red at the edge of each iris. This is similar to Charlotte's eyes in her larger form, which are colored blue near the center but then change to yellow and other colors. This theory was supported with the new trailer, showing Nagisa in her magical girl form which looks quite similar to Charlotte.

This article shows that this speculation is even supported by popcorn.

The theories below have not been proven yet.Please keep in mind that they are fanmade theories, and not official material.

Nagisa's eye color pattern is possibly a form of heterochromia, a cosmetic disease that causes ones eyes to be multiple colors, called Central Heterochromia. Traditional heterochromia is usually seen in individuals whose each eye is a different color, however Nagisa's variation is an alternate that causes the eyes to change color near the iris of the eye. Most likely, though, it is just a reference to Charlotte's second form.

The theories below have been proven wrong.They are only kept here for the sake of completeness.

Nagisa's white hair and unusually colored eyes have also drawn comparisons to Kyubey and Ultimate Madoka. There are speculations that Nagisa is an Incubator in human form, or some kind of manifestation of Madoka in the new world she created.

Because the Faust legend references feature somewhat prominently in Madoka Magica, and due to the new ending animation shown at the end of the first movie (the sequence had a pink silhouette holding another, smaller silhouette inside of it - much like a fetus), it is speculated that Nagisa may be the child of Ultimate Madoka. In Goethe's Faust, Gretchen was actually pregnant with Faust's baby and she was forced to murder her baby by drowning it. Evidence to support this theory is fairly obvious - Nagisa's own design (most prominently her face) looking very similar to Madoka's, much like how a child would resemble their parents to an extent.

Nagisa's last name is similar to Mami Tomoe's last name, as well as the given name of Kyoko Sakura's sister Momo. This might indicate a connection with both characters. Evidence to support this is in the new theatrical release poster, where it depicts Nagisa attempting to hide behind Mami and in return, Mami is seemingly trying to hold her close.

Because of the reading of her name 百江 (Momoe) = hundred rivers and なぎさ (Nagisa) = shore, it is speculated she could be the convergence of timelines.

If Nagisa is connected to Madoka, Nagisa's magical girl form resembling a cat could reference Madoka's wish in the first timeline to save a cat.

However, if Nagisa is associated with the Incubators, her magical girl form resembling a cat could reference the Incubators' cat/ferret-like appearance.

Nagisa's given name could be a reference to Nagisa Misumi from the magical girl anime Futari wa Pretty Cure. It could also be a reference to Kaworu Nagisa from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion or Nagisa Furukawa from CLANNAD. All are likely for symbolic purposes: the first Nagisa is a magical girl, the second is speculated to be travelling through time loops in his canon's own reboot movies, and the third is saved by her love interest causing a similar time loop.

Given the ending of Rebellion, it can also be noted that in the movie version of CLANNAD, the time loops were removed and attempts to save Nagisa failed...

Trivia

Nagisa's transformation starts with her saying "Parmigiano Reggiano!", a sort of cheese also known as Parmesan.

According to the Rebellion production note, Nagisa's magic is a horn that is supposed to make her more self-assertive and greedy because she regrets wishing for just a single cheesecake.

Nagisa's name is never mentioned in the actual movie.

Etymology

Nagisa's given name is written in hiragana and has no particular meaning.

It can mean "beach" or "water's edge" when written in kanji (渚 or (汀). The "-sa" part can mean "sand" (沙) or (砂).

The first character for Momoe (百) means "hundred", but also carries the connotation of "a lot of things". The second character (江) means "inlet" or "bay". "Momoe" could be translated as "a hundred rivers".

In many languages, "bebe" means "baby". This fits with Mami's name, which is pronounced similar to "mommy".

Nagisa's last name is almost identical to Mami's last name, Tomoe. The only difference is the first syllable.

Manga pages

Fanart

This section contains fanart images

Everything in the following fan gallery is created, or the comments accompanying them are created, for entertainment value and should not be confused with actual canon events of the Puella Magi franchise.